Lenin and Trotsky

[RedSunsZenith]

I've been reading a lot of Lenin lately, and have realized that many of the ideas expressed in "State and Revolution" are similar to the beliefs of some self-proclaimed "Trotskyists." I haven't had the opportunity to read any of Trotsky's work yet, so I was wondering if someone could explain to me how Lenin and Trotsky differ.

[Aurora]

There not just similar they are the same, Trotskyists consider themselves to be in the tradition of Lenin and as such The State and Revolution is a staple of Trotskyist literature :p . How Lenin and Trotsky differ is a bit of a difficult question, their ideas changed a lot throughout their lifetimes and came into conflict sometimes but i'd say in the most important areas they were similar if not the same i.e they both thought that a democratic socialist party and state were necessary to fight out ideas and for workers to rule as a class.
Probably the most important difference between them is that Lenin died in 1924 while Trotsky lived to 1940 and as such there's 16 years of analysis by Trotsky of how and why the Soviet Union degenerated, analysis of Fascism and analysis of many other events and conditions that were around after Lenin.

[thesadmafioso]

The two were more or less entirely in agreement in regards to their approach to Marxist theory post 1917, the only major differences between the two can be found in policy disagreements.

Even before the revolution, the main disagreement between them was focused on the comparatively insignificant matter of the makeup of the Russian Social Democratic Party, with Trotsky being opposed to Lenin's efforts to split the party away from the more moderate factions. Of course, once the situation in Russia became revolutionary Trotsky more or less ceded this point and officially joined the Bolshevik's, making that a rather irrelevant matter.